The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories

eddish houses. At the bottom of the slope, on my suggestion, we halted for a few moments aside, while the current rushed forward and, spreading out, inundated the whole space in one marvellous m

ient thought that after all a draw is not as good as a win! It hurried blindly, instinctively outwards, knees and chins protruding, hands deep in pockets, chilled feet stamping. Occasionally someone stopped or slackened to light a pipe, and on being curtly bunted onward by a blind force from behind, ac

ere the crowd was less dangerous, but still very formidable-to my eyes. Each tram as it came up was savagely assaulted, seized, crammed and possessed, with astounding rapidity. Its steps were the western bank

d, which was comparatively free. He wore grey trousers, heavy boots, and a dark cut-away coat

oys, cheekily. And then there were

he hero,

impeders, between his teeth,

ey call a pot-hunter, a racing bicyclist, you know. But he's got past that and he'll soon be past football. He's thirty-four

"Where do they c

go an Oldham club offered Knype ￡500 for Myatt, a big price-more than he's worth now! But he wouldn't go, though they guaranteed to

re his

Association fix a maximum. I daresay about

d a stout loiterer in our path. "Or I'l

ing l

procession of trams,-tram following tram, each gorged with passengers, frothing at the step with passengers; not the lackadaisical trams that I had seen earlier in

the sympathy of every true sportsman would be with the disabled player. I began to say something to Buchanan, when suddenly I could not hear my own voice. The great machine, with another behind us, was working at a fabulous speed and with a fabulous clatter. All that my startled senses could clearly disentangle was that the blue arc-lights above us blinked occasi

take them," he said at

we had seen playing in the street. But not urchins now; rather young tigers! Perhaps half a dozen had reached the counter; the rest were massed behind, shouting and quarrelling. Through a hole in the wall, at the level of the counter, bundles of papers shot continuously, and were snatched up by servers, who distributed them in smaller bundles to the hungry boys; who flung down

hose discs?

in the day," said Buchanan. "We haven't ti

we left, "I'm ve

th for?" Buc

hing,"

metimes scarcely shod, scudding over the lamp-reflecting mire with sheets of wavy green, and above the noises of traffic I could hear the shrill outcry: "Signal. Football Edition. Football